Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks Who was Rosa Parks, what made her one of the most important people in black history, and what did she change for black people in the USA? ' ' Who is Rosa Parks? ' Rosa Parks was born Rosa Louise McCauley in Tuskegee, Alabama, on February 4, 1913. She was an African-American civil rights activist, whom the U.S. congress called “The first lady of civil rights” and “ The mother of the freedom movement”. '''What happened? ' On Thursday, December 1, 1955, the 42-year-old Rosa Parks was going home from a long day of work at the Montgomery Fair department store by bus. At that time in the US, segregation was written into the law; the front of a Montgomery bus was reserved for the white citizens, and the seats in the back for black citizens. At one point of the route, a white man came on. The white man had no seat because all the seats in the “white” section were taken. So the bus driver told the riders in the back of the bus, the “colored” section to stand up, in which effect would add another row to the “white” section. ''1'“People always say that I didn’t give up my seat because I was tired,” wrote Parks in her autobiography, “ but that isn’t true. I was not tired physically… No, the only tired I was, was tired of giving in”. '' The bus driver moved the “colored” sign behind Parks and demanded that four black citizens should give up their seats in the middle section so that the white passenger could sit. The three black citizens obeyed. Rosa Parks didn’t. The black citizen who was sitting next to Rosa Parks moved, so when the bus driver came again and said that Rosa Parks should moved, she just moved into the window seat. She didn’t give up her “colored” section. The bus driver called the police to arrest Rosa Parks. What happen after the arrest? ''' The bus boycott in Montgomery was an epochal period of the American civil rights movement’s history. The bus boycott was a political and social protest campaign against racial segregation of public transportation in the city of Montgomery, Alabama. The campaign started on 1 December 1955, the same day Rosa Parks got arrested for not give up her bus seat to a white citizen. On that night, the Women’s Political Council, led by Jo Ann Robinson, printed and circulated a flyer throughout Montgomery’s black community that read as following: ''2'"Another woman has been arrested and thrown in jail because she refused to get up out of her seat on the bus for a white person to sit down. It is the second time since the Claudette Colvin case that a Negro woman has been arrested for the same thing. This has to be stopped. Negroes have rights too, for if Negroes did not ride the buses, they could not operate. Three-fourths of the riders are Negro, yet we are arrested, or have to stand over empty seats. If we do not do something to stop these arrests, they will continue. The next time it may be you, or your daughter, or mother. This woman's case will come up on Monday. We are, therefore, asking every Negro to stay off the buses Monday in protest of the arrest and trial. Don't ride the buses to work, to town, to school, or anywhere on Monday. You can afford to stay out of school for one day if you have no other way to go except by bus. You can also afford to stay out of town for one day. If you work, take a cab, or walk. But please, children and grown-ups don't ride the bus at all on Monday. Please stay off all buses Monday.” '' On December 5, Rosa Parks was found guilty of violating segregation laws. On the same day as Rosa Parks was in the court, were Martin Luther King and other persons handing out thousands of flyers, that all black people shouldn’t take the bus that day. It was a non-violent protest. The bus boycott was a success and it lasted for 13 months. Around in the US started there to come other civil rights groups, and things started to change in the community. Rosa Parks died in 2005, so she didn’t experienced the big day, 53 years after her arrest, where the US wrote history and finally closed a very sad chapter in the country’s history. The boycott officially ended December 20, 1956, after 381 days. 'What happened after the boycott? ' The black citizens of Montgomery started using the buses again on December 21st 1956. After the 381 days of the bus boycott the busses went to the Supreme Court to prove that it was not legal to segregate black citizens from white citizens on public transportation. Eventually, the Supreme Court ruled that it was unconstitutional to separate people based on their color. When the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the black citizens, they knew it would change their life. This victory inspired other blacks to challenge other segregation issues all the way to the Supreme Court. The bus boycott ended something horrible and started something wonderful. 'Conclusion ' The black citizens really accomplished a lot in Montgomery back then. The proof of how things have changed is shown in the improved rights that black citizens have today. They stopped segregation on busses, and it gave the black citizens a chance to stop segregation in other public places. The black community of Montgomery proved that having a non-violent protest also could create positive changes. They provided a starting point in the fight for racial equality. Rosa Parks was one of the few women who took the battle of segregation up, and she fought for it. That is why she is remembered today, and always will be remembered. She is a very important person for the black history, and that is why when she died at age 92 on October 24, 2005, she became the first woman in the nation’s history to lay in state at the U.S. Capitol. 'Sources ' http://www.history.com/topics/rosa-parks http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosa_Parks#Montgomery_Bus_Boycott ---- 1 http://www.history.com/topics/rosa-parks 2 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Montgomery_Bus_Boycott